Suspected militants to stand trial on charges of killing hundreds of Iraqi soldiers in Tikrit

A police officer stands guard in front of the Iraqi Supreme court in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, July 8, 2015. An Iraqi court has issued death sentences to 24 militants for their role in killing hundreds of soldiers last year. The slain soldiers were captured by the Islamic State group when they overran Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in summer 2014. At the time, the soldiers were trying to flee from a nearby army base. (AP Photo/ Karim Kadim)
(The Associated Press)

Mothers hold up posters of their sons, Iraqi soldiers who were killed, at a courtroom in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, July 8, 2015. An Iraqi court has issued death sentences to 24 militants for their role in killing hundreds of soldiers last year. The slain soldiers were captured by the Islamic State group when they overran Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in summer 2014. At the time, the soldiers were trying to flee from a nearby army base. (AP Photo/ Karim Kadim
(The Associated Press)

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015, photo, Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militiamen launch rockets against Islamic State extremist positions in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq. Iraq is going through its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Islamic State group controls large swaths of the country's north and west after capturing Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul and the majority of the western Anbar province last year. (AP Photo)
(The Associated Press)

BAGHDAD – The trial of suspected militants accused of killing hundreds of Iraqi soldiers last year has begun in Baghdad.

The spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, told The Associated Press that 28 defendants are being tried for their alleged role in the killing of around 1,700 soldiers when the Islamic State group captured Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in summer 2015.

Bayrkdar said the defendants acknowledged their participating in the killing of the soldiers who were trying to flee nearby Camp Speicher, an air base on the outskirt of Tikrit.

At the time, the Islamic State group posted graphic images and video that showed its gunmen massacring scores of the soldiers after loading the captives onto flatbed trucks and then forcing them to lay face-down in a shallow ditch.